Durbin calls for more oversight on for-profit schools

Dawn Thompson of Athens turned to a for-profit college 10 years ago to earn a paralegal degree so she could better provide for her two children.

She took online classes with Everest University, but things didn’t work out as planned. She ended up with more than $100,000 in student loan debt and no job in her field.

“I trusted them, I believed in them, and I got taken advantage of,” Thompson said.

Thompson shared her story Friday at Lincoln Land Community College during a news conference with U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, a Springfield Democrat. The Illinois lawmaker said for-profit schools like Everest are taking advantage of students and American taxpayers.

“(These for-profit schools) only get 10 percent of the graduates from high schools, but they are responsible for 46 percent of the student loan defaults,” said Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate. “Why? Two obvious reasons: They charge too much, and they produce too little.”

Durbin said the for-profit schools charge two to five times more than other colleges and universities. Unlike other types of loans, people can’t walk away from student loans through bankruptcy.

“It’s a debt that’s with you for a lifetime,” Durbin said. “Signing up at the age of 19, 20 or 21 for student debt, how many of these young people realize that $10,000, $20,000, $40,000, $50,000 or more cannot be dismissed in bankruptcy and is going to be with them until they pay it off? God forbid they run into trouble — medical difficulties or unemployment.”

To help, Durbin sent a letter to high school principals across Illinois earlier this year to call their attention to the problem. The senator said these institutions use fraudulent marketing and recruiting techniques, false job placement rates, and predatory lending practices.

Durbin asked the principals to make their students aware of all of their options for accessible, affordable higher education, including programs at community colleges and other not-for-profit institutions.

Thompson said she was drawn to Everest because of its online program and its job placement program.

“At the time, I couldn’t go to a school and sit in a classroom because my children were small. It was convenient for me,” Thompson said.

Unable to get a paralegal job, Thompson went back to Everest to get a Master of Business Administration degree. She said she has to stay because she can’t pay the student loans.

In April, Durbin introduced a bill that would improve coordination between federal agencies that oversee the for-profit college industry.

As chairman of the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, Durbin included language in the 2015 Department of Defense Appropriations Act to help put an end to what he describes as the for-profit industry’s predatory marketing campaigns and aggressive recruiting of service members and their families.